The head of Exodus International -- billed as the world's largest "gay conversion" Christian group -- said it was time for the organization to shut down because of changing attitudes toward homosexuality. The Florida-based ministry announced it was closing its doors Wednesday night, a day after Chambers apologized in a statement to members of the gay community for "years of undue judgment by the organization and the Christian church as a whole.” Join us at 9 a.m. as we discuss how both the LGBT and Christian communities are responding to Exodus International's announcement with Times reporters Kate Mather and Anh Do. "I believe we've come to a time in the church when it's time to lay our weapons down," Alan Chambers said at an Irvine conference.

In a time when states are ratifying gay marriage at a record pace and the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy is old news, when the Boy Scouts of America reverse a controversial policy and now accept gay scouts, "Call Me Kuchu," a documentary on Uganda's gay rights debate, hits like a series of shock waves. Filmmakers Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall use understatement in laying out the explosive realities of life in Uganda for the LGBT community, the so-called kuchus.

The Kremlin has just issued a 12-year plan to address Russia's demographic crisis - that is, its high mortality rate and low birthrate. Buoyed apparently by a recent rise in the birthrate - 1.9 million Russian children were born in 2012, compared with 1.2 million in 1992 - the country has announced that it will give bonuses to families that have more than two children and will provide better healthcare, housing and education for families. In addition to these "carrots," the government has announced some "sticks": Divorce will be taxed as an "act of hatred toward children," and a fixed sum of alimony will be demanded even of those who are poor or unemployed.

MOSCOW - Despite opposition from human rights activists, Russia's lower house of parliament Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that would ban providing children with information on homosexuality. The lower house, or State Duma, voted 436-0 with one abstention to pass the bill introduced by the pro-Kremlin United Russia political party banning “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations.” The measure still needs to go through the Federation Council, or senate, and be signed by President Vladimir Putin, but is considered almost certain to become law, possibly by the end of June.

Even as they await rulings from the Supreme Court this month on the legal rights of gay and lesbian couples, supporters and opponents of same-sex marriage agree on one point -- legal recognition has become inevitable. Nearly three-quarters of Americans say same-sex marriage has reached the point in which it is certain to become legal, according to a newly released poll from the Pew Research Center. That includes 59% of those who oppose the idea, as well as 85% of supporters. The nationwide poll asked numerous questions about public attitudes toward gay men and lesbians.

At an investment conference last week, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson created a huge mess for himself. He glibly speculated that maybe because economist John Maynard Keynes was a childless, "effete" homosexual, he embraced a doctrine that favored immediate economic gratification. Keynes' bon mot "in the long run, we are all dead" takes on new meaning when you realize he didn't have kids to worry about. FOR THE RECORD: Book title: The May 7 Jonah Goldberg column had a typo in the subtitle of William Greider's book “Secrets of the Temple.” It is “How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country,” not “County.” Following the usual script, but at a much faster clip, an uproar ensued on Twitter and in various blogs.

Chris Broussard usually offers expertise on fast breaks and zone defense, but on Monday he drove right into America's culture wars by calling homosexuality "an open rebellion to God" and implying that gay people can't be Christians. Speaking on ESPN's "Outside the Lines," the basketball analyst and former New York Times writer was discussing NBA player Jason Collins, who in a landmark move just became the first active player in one of the major...

When NBA center Jason Collins became the first male athlete still active in a major professional sport to come out as gay, many fellow sports figures immediately offered their support on Twitter. Miami Dolphins $60-million receiver Mike Wallace was not one of them. Instead, about an hour or so after Collins' revelation on Monday, he tweeted a comment basically expressing general confusion over the concept of homosexuality. He did not mention Collins by name but said that he was shaking his head that "guys wanna mess with guys" even though there are "all these beautiful women in the world.

Re "Scalia's poison pen," Opinion, April 14 Bigoted as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's views on homosexuality seem, he makes a valid legal point by intimating that equal protection claims asserted to support gay marriage similarly support incestuous unions. Both gay and incestuous couples long were excluded from marriage because of biological considerations. Gays couldn't reproduce, and incestuous couples couldn't do so without a high risk of birth defects. That all changed with the advent of artificial insemination, surrogate pregnancy and other alternative conception techniques.

WASHINGTON -- A new public opinion survey is the latest to confirm a major social trend that shows no sign of ebbing: rising acceptance of same-sex marriage and homosexuality in America. Fully one in seven adults (14%) say they've changed their mind about gay rights, often because they have a friend or family member who is gay, according to the new national poll by the independent Pew Research Center. Recently, another national poll, by the Washington Post and ABC News, found that support for gay marriage is now at an all-time high, as the Supreme Court prepares to take up the issue, including a test of California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriages.